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Is eating food that's too big dangerous for a gecko?

Hello, I haven't been on this forum in ages. 😮☺️
I recently bought 3 baby geckos. They're quite young, 1-3 months, and tiny. Tonight I gave them some crickets. I only saw one take a cricket but it looked like it was a bit too big for it. I sometimes have trouble visually gauging how big a cricket should be for a gecko. She swallowed it but I could tell she was really working on it. Is it dangerous for them to eat a feeder that's too big? Or will they spit it up if it can't go down? It has to get into their stomach, right? She looks okay now but this is the kind of thing that worries me...

They should be no bigger than the space between their eyes. They would have to be pretty tiny crickets for baby geckos. You're feeding Pangea or Repashy as well, right? Pangea makes a food with insects now, you could try that until the babies are bigger, or unless you can get very small crickets to supplement the CGD.

You shouldn't feed an insect longer/bigger then the space between a geckos eyes on top of their head. If you feed something too big it could cause them to possibly choke and could even cause compaction if they struggle to digest all the chitin in the insect. Bigger bugs usually means older bugs and they typically have firmer/thicker shells which means a tiny gecko could struggle. If you can't find something small enough I would just wait until they are larger to introduce live bug treats. If you are feeding repashy or pangea (and you should be) they will grow on this just fine since it is a complete diet. Once they are bigger you can see if they like live prey safely.

Yes they're eating Pangea. Breeders told me to start feeding them crickets ASAP to make sure they take to them. I have crickets that are small enough but like I said I sometimes can't tell if one is too big unless I physically hold it up to the tiny gecko's head. She appears fine now, she didn't cough it up, so fingers crossed she digests it ok. 🙏 Thanks

It's usually best to make sure they are eating their pangea/repashy food regularly first before introducing insects. Many geckos will refuse to eat their regular food and just wait for insects instead. Also most young geckos will not refuse insects and it's not the end of the world or damaging to their health if they don't like insects. Pangea is a complete diet and it would be worse for them to refuse to eat that then refuse to eat insects. They may grow a bit slower if they aren't feed insect treats but they will grow and be ok without them if they don't show interest.

The whole "they may not eat their regular food" is an old argument that truly holds no merit. Even Pangea heavily encourages insect feedings alongside their complete diet. So please keep that in mind. There is nothing at all wrong with feeding insects starting young. In the wild, they eat insects a great deal, especially when younger. If they are not ever eating gecko diet along side the insects, it's time to try different gecko diets.

As for size, the guidelines you read about the insect needing to be smaller than the width of the geckos eyes came to being because it was the easiest way to explain to people that aren't used to keeping geckos, what a close size approximation should be. In reality, them eating a bug larger than that is not going to harm them unless it's massively oversized or is an inappropriate feeder insect. Large insect with overly hard chitin (mealworms for example) can be problematic, but crickets are not going to be an issue unless you really go overboard. When my crested hatch out, they are started on 1/4 inch crickets within a couple days of hatching. The moral is, use your best judgement and common sense. If it looks too big, just remove it and don't feed that one off.

Try the new pangea breeding formula.Has bug flour in it so when you mix it with water it will be like bug juice for them.Has more calcium and protein in it than the rest of the pangea cgds.Its good for geckos at any age.Its like giving mashed food for babies till their tooth grow out but for geckos its good till they get strong and big enough to chew and digest insects with ease. Since its a full substantial diet they will eat less from it and will get full.